Good morning all.
Today at 1.30 Fulham come to the home of football to face the mighty Arsenal.
The mighty Arsenal on a bit of a roll , by the way. In our last two games we have comfortably seen of Sheffield United and Slavia Prague. Ok, not the mightiest opponents, but we have dispatched them with somewhat of a flourish. Things are looking up. We may not be flying high, but at least there is a bit of an accent, we should enjoy it while it’s going.
Fulham are desperate for points, but they are finding them very hard to come by. They find themselves in 18th place, and 7 points behind 17th having played a game more. In other words, they’re relegated. They have lost their last four games and although they play some nice football, it’s not nice enough to get them any points.
If memory serves it’s a battle of the two youngest managers. Both have struggled this season but neither of their jobs seem in danger, That’s odd these days.
I’m back to guess work on who might play , personally I would go with the same eleven that started in Prague but of course I have no idea about fitness levels or anything else, so it will likely be all change.
This is a game I expect us to win comfortably and with a bit of style too. We need a bit of cheering up and I think we will get it.
Enjoy the game and stay safe
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Hard not to think that having looked a month ago as if they were on the brink of a great escape, recent results and a Newcastle revival will have extinguished much of the Fulham spirit. Similarly two positve wins – and seven goals – in the last two matches would seem to point to a resurgence of belief in the Arsenal ranks.
Given all of that it would not surprise me in the least to see an over-confident and casual performance leading to a disappointing draw.
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Fortunately Fulham, however well they play , just can’t get results and seem to fail alot in the last twenty minutes so even it’s tight our subs should be able to get us over the line here.
If we start positive and move the ball quickly then it should be all over by then especially as it must be difficult to get the Fulham players up for the remaining games of the season as everything seems to be going wrong for them and there survival hopes hand by an ever decreasing thread.
18 points would still get them to 42 but that’s six wins and no-one could see that happening.
Apparently we always do badly after Europe ( how true that is dont know) and with a big change in the line up a disjointed performance would see us struggle.
The PL has been hard to call this season and we are the epitome of that so a drab and dreary performance is just as likely as a lightning fast and decisive one.
Normally I would be saying it’s another good opportunity to play the kids but maybe Mikel needs a bit of continuity with his best eleven.
Again arguing with myself the importance of Xhaka, ESR and Saka means maybe we should be wrapping them up with cotton wool as the team can’t seem to function without them.
Basically I haven’t a fucking clue whats going to happen so simply COYG.
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major rotation in our team selection today
Ryan
Bellerin, holding, Gabriel, Xhaka
Elneny, Ceballos
Saka, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli
Lacazette
subs: Leno, Cedric, Mari, Chambers, Partey, Pepe, Nelson, Nketiah, Willian
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Orbinho
@Orbinho
· 1h
Arsenal have played six games at the Emirates Stadium this season following Europa League matches losing five and winning one.
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Rotation Ed’s but not where it is required! Or available!!!
Saka and Xhaka BOTH off the pace after the midweek European adventure and various knocks and niggles.
WTF? Why are they on the pitch!?
I am no longer upset that a coach who pushes injured players back into the pitch has no idea how to manage the squad fitness. A set up which let the Lewins leave the club and replaced them with Kia’s lickspittles.
Give Arteta his own players? Please. He has ruined Partey’s and Tierney’s seasons through stupid and unnecessary mismanagement. Along with Ozil. That’s quite a list. And it is not a good list!
Saka starts again with Willian Pepe and Nelson on the bench I am sorry to say that is: bollocks. A prime cut of stinking BS. Having written this Saka will probably score the winner.
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Ceballos goal ruled out for a very tight offside v Saka
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Bellerin eh? Lovely cross. He’s Not a bad footballer.
But as for the pgmob? Well. The most expensive league in the league world. With the worst officials? Who don’t understand the simple rules of the world’s most popular and simple sport? What!?? Must be a coincidence! Lol. Hahaha. They’ve got half the fans on toast as monkeys haven’t they? The rest of us are here for the footy not for their bogus competition. Everyone knows.
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HT: Arsenal 0-0 Fulham
started very brightly and really should have scored a couple of goals, then our levels dropped and Fulham came back into it, and almost scored with a deflected effort. we have had a ceballos goals ruled out for offside and had some other good attacking positions. But we might need to bring on some attacking spark if we want the win
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I have been able to watch the last 20 minutes or so of the first half and saw nothing to get too excited about.
It would have been a good goal, had it not been offside.
In contrast to Thursday’s game, we had 67% possession and managed 3 shots with one on target.
You only win games if you score goals and you can only score goals if you shoot in direction of the goal.
Did I see somewhere that we are the worst or one of the worst for shots in the league?
Can we expect any better in the 2nd half. One hopes so, otherwise, all the hype and optimism created by beating the worst team in the league and an awful team in the Europa League will have been wasted.
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Think on reflection we will be lucky to get a point. As my old coach used to say, ‘it’s got all the makings’.
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xhaka down injured and seems to be in a lot of pain
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It’s so bogus that they didn’t show a level view for the dodgy wiggly lines they draw.
We’ve all seen the bending lines.
What a league!!!
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penalty to fulham, var gives it after an offside check
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Had a feeling the PGMOL were going to do us today
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maja scores it to make it 1-0 to Fulham
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Forget about the offside the attacker jumped and dived.
The offside seems to have distracted the var.
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JJ
Fulham have had more shots then the Gunners this season.
Scotty Thunderbird Parker has his soon to be relegated (I hope the betting results for this match came in as expected?) championship cloggers have been playing better football then Arteta’s Arsenal. Simple stuff. No debate! IMO Parker has done the best job of all of these new inexperienced coaches who were recently players.
No subs till too late today from our own inexperienced rookie who is now starting flag and dither?
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we need to bring on some subs to help us up the tempo and quality of our play
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Has xhaka been allowed to take a free kick from this position since he scored against Chelsea?
What’s the point in having all those drones if you can’t even get your best fk taker to take a few kick? Never mind the pgmob who have the structural integrity of a rotten collapsed barn built during a drunken rage after an earthquake and tsunami, It’s shockingly bad management! And I can’t believe the blaggers can still defend this with a straight face.
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Partey and Pepe on for Bellerin and Elneny
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It is all such a joke! The big toe decisions are destroying the game. I’m sure Saka and ESR are playing because Southgate is watching.
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lacazette’s hamstring gone by the look of it
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Nketiah on for Lacazette
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pepe has a header cleared off the line
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saka is playing right back
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15 minutes left for us to save this game
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I apologise for the rant but there it is:
Lacazette injured. Ridiculous.
Stupid management. Dropping your best players. Not resting your only fit striker in a dead rubber.
No matter how much the blaggers bleat and squeal, this coach doesn’t deserve any more new players as he can’t look after the ones he’s already been given and the ones that he inherited.
At least we saw some subs before the 70 minute mark.
It’s not just Arsenal fans who think the following:
The Kronke’s are guilty of crimes against Football.
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Great save from the Fulham keeper from Pepe!
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Justice was done.
It should not have been a penalty.
Otherwise nothing to get excited about.
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Persistence is a great quality to be admired, they kept going right until the end, it’s not their fault that even they couldn’t find a reason to disallow at the death. The PGMOL kept trying, one of their finest performances of the season
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Funny how often those varginal calls go against us.
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Vaginal calls made by dodgy Cnuts
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European Super League details:
Chairman: Florentino Perez [Real Madrid]
Vice-Chairman: Stan Kroenke [Arsenal]
Vice-Chairman: Andrea Agnelli [Juventus]
Vice-Chairman: John W. Henry [Liverpool]
Vice-Chairman: Joel Glazer [Manchester United]
[via @MailSport]
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Arsenal haven’t won back to back League games since January.
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Łukasz Bączek
@Lu_Class_
·
7m
The European Super League will be formalized soon
15 permanent founding members
The founder members would be granted up to €350m
€6bn fund (JPM) backing the project
DAZN is ready to pay €3.5bn for TV rights
UEFA will demand €50-€60bn in compensation from clubs
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The 12 clubs supporting the European Super League, as it stands, are: Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus
PSG and Bayern Munich expected to be in it too
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In a joint statement, UEFA, English FA, Italian FA, Spanish FA, Premier, Liga, Serie A announce that the 12 clubs involved in SuperLeague will be banned from domestic league if they will pursue their project
FIFA say they will ban any player who plays in the Super League, from playing in the World Cup
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I hope the Super League Clubs call FIFA, UEFA and the FA’s bluff, what do the EPL think they will be without the 6 biggest clubs, maybe even seven or eight as there are still places up for grabs in the new superleague. Who would be interested in the World Cup if none of the players of the 12 clubs names so far, and the other 8 are not playing for their countries.
SKY and co would be fucked up big time if 6 or more of the top sides leave the EPL, for that alone I’d be all for it.
The PGMOL will not know who to fix the games for too, and no worldwide TV audience to bankroll the EPL would see it slump.
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Kerry Packer and World Series all over again.
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Don Draper
@arsenalbarclays
·
13m
SuperLeague : PSG didn’t want to take part in the European SuperLeague because of the repercussions it might have in the 2022 World Cup organized in Qatar
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Fins, what we’re our best players that he rested? Our best three players available all played Xhaka, ESR and Saka.
The subs were ridiculous, what attacking advantage did they give. Going forward is Partey an upgrade on Elneny certainly not on how he played today. Was Pepe an upgrade on Martinelli no. The only difference was Eddie for Laca as they play differently and that was forced.
We all know had Arsene been still there we would of finished with six strikers but unfortunately Mikel’s subs are always one for one.
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t see the line up and think oh that’s strange. Gabriel is our most out of form CB normally you let CB pairings have as much time together as possible so what has Mari done wrong, if he is carrying a knock surely we should be playing Chambers/holding.
Obviously had the foul not been given against Martinelli when the Fulham defender fell over we might have scored and they wouldn’t of got the pen. In that situation I thought the ref was supposed to play on and if we scored then use VAR.
Oh and by the way although the keeper done well to keep out Pepe effort there is no doubt he should scored and in actual fact it seem to hit him in the face.
Basically another bad day at the office
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Ian i am guilty of some vagueness there, you’ll be surprised to hear! I meant dropping one of the best players from the league squad in the first half of the season.
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Which highlights the inability to rest Saka and Xhaka. If a coach can drop a good player for asking the wrong question then surely that same coach should be resting key players in a dead rubber towards the end of the season.
There’s no excuse for starting Xhaka Saka and Lacazette in today’s meaningless contest. Save for stupidity.
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Maybe that super league explains why the English football establishment has done everything to undermine Arsenal via the PGMOL, but doesn’t explain the preferential treatment the other clubs get I guess
But will need to get better, teams who can’t beat Burnley, Wolves, Villa and Fulham today might have problems living with at least some of that Lot .
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well Mandy, something like £35M to join and even more than that to come with no relegation and secured revenue would mean that we should like the rest of the Superleague clubs be able to buy all the best players from the non SL clubs. Just as the EPL was set up to stop the drain of the best players out of the English top flight, the SL is so that the SL clubs can get all the top players. They would be able to bring in their own squad rules, both season squad, transfer window rules and match day squads plus the number of subs used too, well all of these if the domestic leagues stand by their idea that they would expel any and all clubs who enter the SL from domestic game.
We could also see the SL finally stop International football being the tail that wags the dog
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James Olley
@JamesOlley
·
24m
Vinai Venkatesham is on the ECA board. He was due to hold a fans’ forum with Arsenal supporters tonight. That has now been postponed. Can’t think why.
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the Superleague clubs could destroy the EPL and other top leagues if they refuse to let clubs play in both, by simply expanding the SL to say 30 to 40 clubs, split into two groups of up to 20 club (which is proposed to be 10 as it is), bring in Everton, Newcastle, Leeds and Aston Villa from EPL, Valencia, Seville etc from spain, Roma and co from Italy, see then who would pay for EPL games etc, Burnley v WBA, Norwich v Watford etc etc.
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The european league is not about the clubs or football, but simply the money.
The owners want the money and care nothing about the clubs and the sport.
Football as we know it will die and our beloved club will die as well.
If all the clubs get these enormous amounts then we will still be the poor relations of Manure, Man$ity and Chel$ki.
If we then get taken over by some Arab billionaire, whatever limited interest I retain, which whilst Arteta continues to destroy us from within is diminishing fast, will be extinguished.
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If this is an American funded thing they’ll want Beckham’s side in there, and maybe one other.
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jjgsol then its no different than what is there already, so whats the problem.
The EPL was set up as a cash cow, plain and simple, the European Cup was changed to the Champions League as a cash cow,
We have had FIFA allow the likes of Andorra play international football as a powergrab, we only have to look at who the award World Cups to, how the allow racism in the game to only get a slap on the wrist, to see they really don’t have the best interests of the game in mind either.
The SuperLeague is doing nothing that FIFA, UEFA, and FA’s have been doing for years, putting themselves first
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They’ll need goals for a world audience so guess offside may go. Cricket is arguably better and stronger since World Series, IPL etc.
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well foreverheady if the FA’s make the Superleague clubs leave their own leagues, then of course the next step for the SuperLeague would be to make it worldwide
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